Mommy Issues
by KSlycke
Summary: Part 9 of my "Playing House" series. After everyone finds out about Mystique's past, what does she think about it?


Mommy Issues

Part 9 of my "Playing House" series.

After everyone finds out about Mystique's past, what does she think about it?

As always, my stories, their characters, "Nuff said!

Mommy Issues

It's not like she wanted this job, it was just thrust on her as head of the Brotherhood House. She was the only woman in the house so it fell to her to have every last damn thing dumped on her regardless of if she wanted it or not.

She had to listen to Toad whining about not fitting in, Blob and his latest diet, Pyro and whatever crazy things Pyro had to come up with, and Piotr aka QuickSilver and his problems with his father, Magneto. Why she all at once became psychiatrist and resident sounding board was beyond her but at this moment, she didn't want to be either.

It killed her to no end that she had to listen to all of this stuff with a smile and nod, but when it came her turn to say anything, the whole house acted like it was going to fall down around its ears.

She got tired of it. So tired of it. Everyone could say anything they wanted to say to her but when it came her turns, there wasn't a word to be said.

What else hurt, was that the whole house now knew her secrets thanks to Victor. She frowned. On the one hand, it had to be open to the public and, she had to admit, Vic did a really good job of explaining even the most complicated of relationships.

Then again, Vic didn't really give a fuck about what people thought and the way he told it reflected that. To give him credit, he was the only one that came to her defense.

And coming from a mass murdering sociopath that was saying something.

It was the day after they found Kyle wandering up to their porch giving a wave hello and explaining that he was the biological offspring of a genetic experiment with their DNA that Raven had the worse day she could remember in a long time.

At first, she agreed to go along with Magneto's plan to infiltrate Bayville. It was just some small town outside of Westchester that they could keep an eye on Xavier and his mutants. It seemed like the easiest job she could have. All she had to do was live in Middle America, be Vice Principle of Bayville High School, and watch the chips fall.

Only life didn't seem to have those plans for her.

First Magneto pawned his son Piotr aka Quicksilver off on her and after that the rest of the brood grew unto Toad, Blob, Gambit, QuickSilver, and Colossus. How she could deal with five teenage boys was beyond her. It's not like she had all of that much experience with teenagers. She didn't even like teenagers.

For a long time, they did their thing and she did hers.

The house fell down around their ears: she didn't care.

The lawn grew up past her knees: What was it to her?

The kids didn't bother going to school: It didn't matter. They weren't her kids, after all.

There wasn't any food in the refrigerator: That was their problem. She could always go out to eat.

They wanted to skip school: That was up to them. She wasn't their life coach.

And then there was Creed. He was by far the biggest asshole she had ever met. She hated him. She hated the way he would always come around just expecting her to be home. Which she was but that was beside the point.

As much as she hated to admit it, when the sound of his motorcycle came around, she paid attention.

That was how it began.

He would show up periodically when he was in town and park his fat ass on_ her_ driveway with a couple beers and a bottle of wine.

It never usually went much further than that except when Vic was really in a mood.

Then those times he would lift her bodily into the air and they would take off on his motorcycle.

There was something about a Harley, the hum of the highway, and her hands around his waist that she found exciting; where they wound up and what they did was no one's business but their own.

In a couple days, he would drop her off with a grin probably gunning the engine before letting it kill and follow her into the house.

The gun of the engine was his calling card to let the kids know he was around. It was almost like a rooster crow that made Raven blush knowing what they did.

For Vic, even the kids noticed when he was around.

She hated that.

It was as if all of a sudden they would come to attention fawning all over themselves over the big stupid guy like he was some kind of father figure.

(see Playing House Part One).

They listened when he told them something, they obeyed when he told them to do something, and all in all there was more peace and order every time he was around.

It made Raven sick.

It made her admire him.

Whenever she said anything, the teenagers would ignore her or go about fucking around with video games. But when Vic was around and unplugged the flat screen, it was all about doing chores and getting things done.

Why wasn't that ever the way with her?

She was the one going to work every day putting a roof over their heads and food on the table. Magneto didn't pay that much and on a teachers' salary she sometimes had to dip into her massive accounts to pay for as much food and rent the kids required.

But whenever she said something, she was ignored.

Then Vic came around, eventually even moving in. Into _her _bed.

He didn't even bother with an invitation. He just showed up and never bothered to leave as if he owned the place. The thought made her blood boil. He came in one night, set up housekeeping, and just stayed.

The kids thought it was great.

In their minds, they had breakfast every morning, fresh coffee on the stove, groceries in the refrigerator, and dinner was always between five and seven. Even the hedges were trimmed.

This wasn't how 'Evil Mutants' were supposed to live.

For their part, the kids started doing better in school, completely forgetting that they were supposed to be the 'Evil Mutants' the rest of Bayville thought them as. Freddy lost weight, Todd tried out for the cheerleading squad; Remy was actually talking to Rogue at school like he had a new found self confidence. Colossus even applied to the National Honor Society.

Sure, they didn't succeed at it, but they were learning valuable life lessons in the mean time.

Almost as if they were a "normal" family, for whatever that meant.

Then there was Kyle.

He just appeared one night and never left.

In a way he was a lot like his father in that regard. He never stayed at the Brotherhood House but at the back of the dirt driveway in the old garage next to the lawn equipment and paint buckets. The kid didn't seem to mind as long as he was welcome into the house.

No, he came in just expecting them to take them in even though he was long past being a teenager and still too young to be on his own.

Vic let him stay stating experiences he had as a lumberjack in 1880's Canada.

Of course Vic always did things that way.

As if it was expected.

He just came in expecting long evening on the porch drinking beers and listening to the kids in the living room playing video games as if it were the completely normal thing for them to do.

He'd spend the nights on the patio with her listening to jazz and smoking a cigar, talking about things that they long forgot about.

He'd put his arm around her and take another swallow before they both dropped off into a comfortable silence that only people that have been around each other for a long time know how to do.

And at night they would make love like some married couple keeping an ear out in case any of the 'kids' would wake up.

How fucked up is that?

This wasn't her life. This wasn't what she signed up for. She didn't want to be Mrs. Middle America with her kids and her wifey "Playing House".

She didn't want PTA's and home work, dinners in the evening and watching kids play in the yard. That wasn't her gas-sucking SUV parked in the dirt driveway with the poppies planted like some sadistic flowers just waiting for their heads to be chopped off.

No, she was Raven Darkholme. She was Mystique. She was one of the most notorious international super villains on the face of the Earth.

She was "Mom". She was "Wife". She was "Neighbor".

And she would sit around the kitchen table at night listening to Toad talk about cheerleaders and their sloppy triple back flip handstands or Colossus whining away about how he wanted to join the National Honor Society.

And then at night, Vic would give his stupid smug smile when they watched TV and the kids playing some video game and that would be it.

He would stretch out on the sofa drinking a beer and she would lie down on top of him watching the kids play a game. He would close his self satisfied little eyes and stroke her hair when she would sip wine. The kids would play themselves out before one of them would yell "Ewww, old people! And they're touching!"

That would be the time they would turn the TV off and go to bed all by themselves.

Any one of them had something they had to get up for in the morning and ten at night was much too late to stay up for.

When the Hell did that happen?

It used to be you couldn't wake them up with a crow bar and a hand grenade.

Now they actually _wanted_ to go to bed.

With the kids asleep it was only a matter of time before Vic's giant damn paws would find her ass. And for Raven, that was just irritating. He didn't own her body but he Goddamn acted like it. It was all of that feeling and groping without any concern of personal space that really got to her.

The man thought that he was part and parcel of the whole house. As if she owed him a debt of gratitude by simply being there.

Sure, things were more peaceful with Vic around. There were less accidental fires, no one was blowing anything up, the house was getting into shape, the kids were well nourished and she didn't have to worry about a single thing.

That was beside the point.

She could do without him. She did in the past. She raised Kurt, Rogue, and Graydon by herself after all.

Then again, they were all fucked up.

On his chest she stared at the psychopath she let into her life. He was lazily watching the news dangling a beer from his fingertips completely oblivious by how much she hated him.

His complete lack of reality and what she was thinking made her want to scream.

He shouldn't be this way either.

What were they? They weren't a normal simple parent that was for sure.

She wondered how he could be so stupid about these things.

Sabertooth was a lot of things, but stupid when it came down to it, he was not.

Instead he laid there, the idiotic stupid oaf she lived with and the kids listened to.

He turned off the TV after the nightly new and gave her ass a squeeze.

She knew that he would later take her to bed and make love to her like they were some stupid married couple and it would all begin again in the morning.

And that pissed her off.

The End


End file.
